Topic: “Many occult, indigenous, and religious traditions have looked toward this time as a period of great awakening and transformation. Unfortunately, the New Age spiritual culture of the modern West has supported self-serving values. Its proponents have condoned the privileged lifestyle of the developed world, which has unleashed ecological destruction and poverty. We are now confronting a global ecological emergency that threatens us with extinction, based on evidence from past epochs. Confronting this requires a new spiritual initiative: Can we realize our unity with our human family and the greater community of life, and act from that perspective?”

Daniel Pinchbeck’s new book, How Soon Is Now?, looks at the ecological crisis facing us as a rite of passage or initiation for humanity, which will force us to evolve to another level of consciousness as a species. In traditional societies, initiations mark the transition from adolescence to adulthood. An adult member of a tribal society must be responsible for the health of the entire tribe. Now that we have created a planetary civilization, we must take responsibility for the fate of the whole.

Jose Arguelles coined the term “psycho-technical civilization” in his book, The Transformative Vision. As we realize there is an underlying psychic reality, we can make a shift to a new social vision where we explore and apply the knowledge gained from altered states of consciousness as a new direction for humanity. One focus of shamanic cultures in the Amazon as well as ancient civilizations like Egypt was the development of psychic abilities. Potentially, we can use our technical powers to enhance and accelerate a collective psychic evolution.

This requires the development of what the occult philosopher Rudolf Steiner called a “spiritual science,” as we understand that science and spirituality are not opposed. Psychedelic catalysts like ayahuasca, DMT, LSD, and other substances seem to reveal vast regions of inner experience or other dimensions. We find ourselves at the beginning of our journey as a species in exploring these hidden realms. The ecological crisis may be necessary as pressure, forcing us to accelerate our psychic evolution.

This event explores ideas from Daniel Pinchbeck’s new book, How Soon Is Now? The book considers the ecological crisis – climate change, biodiversity loss, resource depletion, and so on – as a rite of passage or initiation for humanity. If we are going to survive as a species, we require more than a reform of our current system – we need to launch a new operating system for human society, making a rapid transition to a regenerative system based on cooperation, focused on healing our damaged ecosystems. For this special night, Daniel has invited collaborators in different areas to discuss how we can shift our paradigm in politics, finance, ecology, as well as consciousness and spirituality.